Jared Leto Doesn't Mind Being Called "Queer," Slams the South as "Oppressive"

In the new issue of FourTwoNine magazine, the Dallas Buyers Club Oscar winner says he doesn't mind if you called him "queer."

When the mag's editor-in-chief Kevin Sessums mentions that some of his "straight friends have begun to define themselves as queer without it being a sexual term but a cultural one," he goes on to ask Leto and his brother Shannon Leto if they'd be "averse" to having the same label.

"I wouldn't care," Shannon said.

Jared added, "I don't think we'd care at all. We certainly identify with people who are different."

That differentness is one of the reasons the Leto brothers' band, 30 Seconds to Mars, has attracted such a large LGBT fan base.

"I got a note from a kid yesterday," Jared said. "We were signing a thousand CDs after a show. If you looked at him, he looked like any young kid maybe in twelfth grade or eleventh grade who'd be on the baseball team or something. A nice looking kid. He handed me a note and it said, 'I just want to say thanks so much for the music. It's helped me in many ways–especially with coming out this year to my family.'"

And to think the Letos were born in the not-always LGBT-friendly south.

"We escaped early on," Jared said. "It's very oppressive."

He further explained, "We would go back for the summers and stay with our grandmother, though. So the culture was always there that we returned to. We moved around every couple of years growing up. Way up to north Massachusetts. Everywhere. But no matter where we were it was a very creative environment around artists. That is obviously an important reason that Shannon and I are pursuing the path that we are now."

For more exclusive pics of the Letos by photographer Damon Baker, go to dot429.com.